E1 Update + KPA Weekend Listing (Midweek recap/ Son does it again!)

First up, the Korean Women’s Team faced Japan in the E1 (formerly the EAFF Tournament) on Friday, Japan edged Korea out 3:2. Hal Kaiser (who has remarkably come of retirement to help cover the Women’s side for the Tavern, starting with this preview), tweeted this out:

Highlights from Japan vs South Korea, including a nice volley by Han Chae-rin who had the spectacular goal against the USA in New Orleans. https://t.co/hQKYL5u2X6 via @YouTube

Some positives and negatives against a perennially tough Japan squad, South Korea plays North Korea on Monday Dec 11. Stay tuned for more from the Women’s side of the E1 tournament…

On the men’s side, they played China earlier today and had the lions share of possession and for awhile looked like a turkey hunt, Korea getting shot after shot on China’s goal. It paid off with Lee Jae-Sung feeding Kim Shin-Wook for the first goal, and Lee Jae-Sung finishing brilliantly for Korea’s 2nd. However, not being able to inflict further damage came back to haunt Team Korea, defensive lapses allowed China to equalize (after conceding early in the match).

Javier Espin by the way is the new assistant coach for Korea, hails from Spain – we welcomed him on Twitter and we”ll welcome him again here at the Tavern.

Shin Tae-Yong in post presser stated his disappointment in the defense. He noted that Korea, who are the E1 defending champs, had far too many wayward passes. Lee Jae-Sung was voted Man of the Match, Kim Shin-Wook actually scored with his feet, and Kim Jin-Su playing LB played brightly. We’ll try to get a bit more analysis from the draw with China. To note: the E1 tournament is a round robin tournament – it’s not an official FIFA event so only Asia based players involved.

Quick midweek roundup: Son scored in the last Champions League group stage match against APOEL, a comfortable 3-0 win. Son has scored (as of Wednesday – no spoiler alerts yet!) 4 out of his 5 starts for Spurs. We’ll have a video recap – it was a sweet goal if you haven’t caught it yet (but I’ve got family biz to attend to – we’ll be back soon enough). Spurs have dominated their group (that included BVB and Real Madrid!) and await the Round of 16 draw next week. Hwang Hee-Chan came on to RB Salzburg’s 0-0 Europa League draw with Marseille – they advance to Europa League round of 16 – not so for Lee Jin-Hyun and Austria Wein.

At this point, the 10 AM Saturday matches have already happened, but in case you haven’t checked twitter, Son had a beast of a game, possibly his best of his Spurs career. Lee Chung-Yong is out injured. That is all. Be back soon!

13 Comments

Is there gonna be any player at the World Cup where the talent gap between club and country is larger than what Son is gonna face?
It’s nice to see British fans/commentators praising him in huge amounts right now.
The rain of criticism of a WC cup failure from Korean netizens will probably be even larger though.

I think at some point the media will let up and blame the team, if Son is putting in top-quality performances individually they’ll recognize that.

Honestly, right now the greatest worry is the defense. Going forwards we have options, but the lack of a quality fullback or centreback will be the downfall. And given that we haven’t taken the time to properly establish a defensive unit/system like Iran have, the cohesion just isn’t there (see the EAFF game vs China)

We can’t start over again. If you think firing and hiring another manager makes the KNT job more attractive to foreign managers, or even attractive to Korean managers… it’s called a poisoned chalice for a reason. It’s Shin Taeyong all the way, even if you’re right, the performances haven’t been great.

As a defensive player, you have to be aware of where other players are on the pitch and especially in the box. Time after time, I see KNT defenders all focused on the player with the ball and unaware that there are other players moving into position to receive a pass. End result is an uncontested goal for the other team.

Too many apologists for Shin… he wasn’t the right guy for u-20 and u-23… his selections and substitutions are terrible… he had one shining moment vs Colombia but that was probably Grande’s inclusion. Don’t forget the 6 other fucking games where you pulled your hair out when he was in charge, you fucking lemmings.

It’s okay. Tavern bouncer is a friendly dude. We’re not Shin Taeyong fanatics either, but I think generally among the writing crew (with the odd dissenting opinion) we’re stuck with Shin and that’s that. Keep on commenting, it livens up discussion, and that’s always good 🙂

K League Classic

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Ulsan

29

2

Seoul

25

3

Jeonbuk Motors

24

4

Daegu

22

5

Sangju Sangmu

20

6

Pohang Steelers

20

7

Gangwon

19

8

Suwon Bluewings

13

9

Seongnam

13

10

Jeju United

10

11

Gyeongnam

9

12

Incheon United

6

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May 25, 2019

Seongnam

1 - 4

Ulsan

Gangwon

0 - 1

Jeju United

Pohang Steelers

0 - 0

Seoul

May 24, 2019

Incheon United

1 - 2

Sangju Sangmu

May 19, 2019

Sangju Sangmu

1 - 3

Seoul

Seongnam

1 - 2

Gangwon

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AFC Bournemouth

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Arsenal

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Brighton & Hov…

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Burnley

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Chelsea

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Crystal Palace

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Everton

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Leicester City

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Liverpool

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Manchester City

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11

Manchester United

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Newcastle United

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13

Norwich City

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Sheffield United

0

15

Southampton

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Tottenham Hotspur

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Watford

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18

West Ham United

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Wolverhampton Wanderers

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Hwang Heechan

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Red Bull Salzburg

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Bayern München

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Borussia Dortmund

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RB Leipzig

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Bayer 04 Leverkusen

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Borussia Mönchengladbach

55

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Wolfsburg

55

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Eintracht Frankfurt

54

8

Werder Bremen

53

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TSG 1899 Hoffenheim

51

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Fortuna Düsseldorf

44

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Hertha BSC

43

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1. FSV Mainz 05

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SC Freiburg

36

14

Schalke 04

33

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Augsburg 1907

32

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Stuttgart

28

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Hannover 96

21

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Nürnberg

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Kwon Changhoon

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Dijon

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